Opinion: Stop Re-prompting for Utilities
Why asking AI for the same tool twice is an efficiency killer, and how to break the cycle.
How many times have you asked ChatGPT to "Write a regex to extract emails from text"? Once? Twice? Ten times?
Every time you re-prompt, you are wasting time. You are waiting for the token generation (3-5 seconds). You are checking if it got it right this time (10 seconds). You are copying it to a console to test it (15 seconds).
It adds up.
The "Disposable" Mindset
We treat AI outputs as disposable because the cost of generation is near zero. But the cost of verify-and-integrate is not zero.
If you generate a perfect Regex Tool on Monday, and you toss it away, you have to pay that verify-and-integrate tax again on Tuesday.
Build Once, Keep Forever
The most productive engineers don't have better memory; they have better libraries. They save snippets. They build scripts.
ClipVibe is that library for the AI generation. Instead of treating the AI output as a stream of text, treat it as a product delivery.
- Receive: The AI gives you the tool.
- Inspect: Does it work?
- Shelf It: Put it on your Dock.
Next time you need an email extractor, don't ask the oracle. Open your drawer.